my soul hurts (when your soul hurts)
by AtLoLevad
Summary: When an injury happens to your soul mate, the mark show sup on you as well. Felicity doesn't believe this, but the marks on her body don't lie.


**A/N: Okay, this is something different from what I usually write. I saw a post on Tumblr about what if the cuts that happened to your body showed up on your soul mate's, and all I could think of was Felicity and Oliver. This is what came out. The timeline is a little funky, but I tried to get as close as I could to canon.**

**I hope you guys like it, and please drop me a review. =)**

* * *

Felicity Smoak never bought into the old soul mates myth. You know, when they get hurt, the injury shows up on your body and vice versa.

It just didn't seem plausible.

All of her friends always believed it. They would show off paper cuts and bruises they _swore_ they had nothing to do with.

When Maya broke her arm senior year of high school, she had been convinced that her soul mate had broken his arm.

Felicity was sure it was the fact that Maya had fallen off of a table after drunkenly dancing on top of it.

Sure, bruises popped up on her shins every once in a while. But Felicity was a little clumsy, and she was the first to admit it.

So, Felicity Smoak never believed in the old soul mate myth.

At least, she didn't until she woke up with a black eye the day of her college graduation.

* * *

"Lissy!" Maya gasped, "What happened to your eye?"

"Hmm?" Felicity yawned, stretching her arms over her head, "Nothing. My eye is fine."

Maya shook her head, "No, it's not. It's actually kind of disgusting."

That roused Felicity from bed, "Disgusting? I really hope I don't have pink eye. That would totally suck. Especially on the morning of graduation. I kind of want these pictures to look nice. I mean, not that anyone special is going to be looking at them."

Felicity was babbling as she stood up to look into the mirror over their shared dresser.

"OHMYGOD!" she shrieked, "My eye! What happened?"

Gently, Felicity touched the black and purple mottled skin around her eye, wincing when she pressed just a little too hard.

"Looks like your soul mate got into a little fight last night," Maya said, already rummaging through her make-up bin for a heavy-duty concealer.

Felicity scoffed, "There's no such thing. I probably hit myself in my sleep, or something."

"That hard?" Maya asked, dabbing the cream around the darkest parts of the bruise first.

Felicity didn't sound sure, even as she said, "You know I flail sometimes in my sleep."

"I don't know, Lis. You didn't go anywhere last night where this could've happened. I think it's your soul mate."

"If it is, which I'm sure it's not," Felicity grumbled, "He'd better learn some self control."

* * *

Over the next few years, Felicity couldn't deny the existence of her soul mate.

Not when burns and cuts and bruises and scars were popping up on her body left and right.

They didn't hurt, but they did startle Felicity when she undressed in the morning and found raw, red slashes across her chest.

Some of them were really hard to cover up.

But Felicity became such an expert, most of her friends probably thought that she was in an abusive relationship.

She wasn't. In any relationship, actually.

Now that she had…_reasonable proof_…of the believability of that old myth, she was waiting for her soul mate.

On late nights, when she was tired (and more than a little drunk) after work, she'd trace the lines and raised skin of the scars, wondering where he (or she, Felicity didn't care) was in order to get these kinds of wounds.

Prisoner of war?

Really (really, really) abusive home?

Felicity just couldn't imagine what he had been through.

So, she tried to make sure she didn't get hurt. Not even a paper cut or a stubbed toe.

She didn't want to cause him any more pain.

* * *

For five years, Felicity's body became systematically covered with wounds from a battle she wasn't fighting.

After a while, though, she became slightly desensitized to the scars and burns showing up. They didn't phase her anymore.

But damn was she curious as to who belonged to the battered body she was experiencing.

"Look at this," she said, hiking up the hem of her shirt, "Doesn't this look like a shark bite?"

Maya winced, and put her fork down, "Lis, I thought we discussed the whole no-showing-off-my-latest-mark at lunch? Especially when they look like yours."

"Sorry!" Felicity said, "I'm just trying to figure this out."

"I'm just glad that Mark is an accountant," Maya said, "The only injuries I have to deal with are paper cuts, and that one time he stapled his finger to his paper."

"Maybe my soul mate is just a really clumsy accountant?" Felicity laughed.

"Or a superhero," Maya giggled.

Felicity almost snorted water out of her nose, "Maybe it's Batman."

Maya laughed, "Hey, don't you have to go? Don't want to be late to your big QC job interview."

"It's just for an entry level IT position," Felicity muttered, her cheeks turning pink.

"For now. Before you know it, you'll be Mr. Steele's personal IT girl," Maya waved her fork in the air, "Good luck."

"Thanks!" Felicity gave her friend a squeeze and ran off, her ankle twisting uncomfortably as she went.

* * *

"I met Oliver Queen today," Felicity said, dropping her bag to the floor.

"_The _Oliver Queen?" Maya poked her head around the wall spoon in hand.

"Well, I think there's only one," Felicity said absentmindedly, thinking about her (very odd) encounter with the presumed dead heir to QC.

"What's he like? Is he as handsome as he looks in the magazines?" Maya called out.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. He's gorgeous," Felicity called back, her fingers running over one of the scars on her arm.

Her entire body had been buzzing all day.

* * *

Felicity couldn't help but gasp when she walked in on Oliver doing the salmon ladder in the Foundry.

Oliver paused at the noise, but kept going.

Felicity watched, dumbfounded, as he swung up onto the next rung, and the next one.

She kept standing, and staring, until Oliver finally stopped and dropped to the floor into a crouch.

"Felicity?" his voice held a touch of a laugh as he turned to face her.

Her eyes widened considerably as she took in the scars and burn marks covering the front of his torso.

"Um…" she squeaked, "I gotta go."

She turned and darted out of the Foundry, stumbling into Diggle as she burst into Verdant.

"Whoa!" Diggle grabbed Felicity around the arms as she bounced back slightly, "Where's the fire?"

Felicity couldn't look Diggle in the eye, "Nowhere. I'm fine. You didn't ask. But I'm fine. I have to go. I need to be somewhere. Don't ask me where. I'll be somewhere. Bye."

She darted away, Diggle staring after her.

"She gets weirder every day," he muttered, opening the door down to the Foundry.

* * *

Felicity planned on keeping a tight lid on the answer to her soul mate mystery.

No one, not even Maya, would know that Oliver Jonas Queen was Felicity Meagan Smoak's soul mate.

"Oh my god," she muttered, sinking to the concrete just outside of QC and dropping her head to her hands, "What am I going to do?"

Her soul mate was a damaged (mentally and physically) vigilante who didn't even know who One Direction were.

He was probably going to get back together with Laurel, eventually.

_But Laurel isn't his soul mate_, a voice in the back of her head said, _You are. They'll never work out. He's supposed to be with you._

Felicity shook her head, she couldn't think like that. Soul mates didn't just magically work out. You had to care about the relationship and work at it or it fell apart.

And Oliver Queen was in no place to work at a relationship.

"Felicity?"

She jumped as a hand rested on her shoulder.

"Oliver!" she exclaimed, looking up into his blue eyes.

"Are you okay? You kind of ran out?" he sat down next to her, back against the wall.

She nodded, "Fine, totally and completely fine."

He regarded her with a skeptical eye, but nodded, "Okay. One of your computers beeped. Digg and I didn't want to touch it after last time."

She smiled sheepishly, "Sorry about that, I get really touchy when it comes to my computers. Or your computers. I mean, you bought them, I just use them. So I really shouldn't be so touchy about them. They're not really mine."

"Felicity…" Oliver cut her off, "They are your computers. I don't know how to use them. Well, not the way you do."

"Oh," she said, "Thank you."

Oliver stood up and held his hand out, "Let's go save Starling."

Felicity put her hand in his, ignoring the tingle that shot up her arm at the contact, and let him pull her to her feet.

She nodded, "I find them, you fight them."

* * *

Felicity tried not to think about that fact that her soul mate was literally right in front of her nose.

It was harder when he got hurt, to hide the effect his injuries had on her.

The more he got involved with vigilante business (and with McKenna and Helena and Laurel) the more Felicity wanted to tell him the truth.

But, knowing Oliver, and the big heart he was hiding underneath green leather, Felicity was sure that he would want to stop vigilante-ing, lest it hurt her more.

And Felicity didn't want that.

So she kept her secret.

It was hardest to keep when he was swinging from that salmon ladder.

* * *

Felicity never meant for Oliver to find out the way he had.

Two years she'd managed to keep her secret.

One bullet to the shoulder.

That's all it took to expose her secret to the world. (Or to Team Arrow, at least)

Sara was carefully pulling her jacket and shirt from the bloody hole in her shoulder when she paused.

"Wha- is it?" Felicity slurred, high from the dose of Vicodin John had given her.

"It's just…" Sara paused, "Does Oliver know?"

"Doshe Oliver know what?" Felicity giggled.

Sara smiled at her friend, but then frowned, "I really hope Ollie doesn't know. Otherwise, I'm totally the other woman."

"What don't you want me to know?" Oliver said, coming up behind Sara, and dropping one hand to each blonde's shoulder.

Sara tried to shift the fabric in her hand, but from the sharp intake of breath, she knew Oliver had seen.

"Sara? Felicity?" he sounded lost, confused.

Sara bit her lip, "I don't think now is the time for that conversation, Ollie."

"Didja stitch me up?" Felicity asked, swaying a little in her seat.

Oliver frowned, eyes soft, "I think you're right, Sara."

* * *

Oliver didn't mean to sit on his knowledge quite so long.

But Slade, and Blood, and Isabel Rochev got in the way.

Felicity, and her scarred body that matched his, was always in the back of his mind though.

As Slade punched him and kicked him, leaving more bruised skin than clear skin on his body, Oliver thought about the mark that would be on Felicity's skin.

He hoped to God it didn't hurt her as much as it was hurting him.

She had been so damn brave, letting herself be used as bait.

He loved her all the more for it.

He wanted to fucking tell her the truth…to finally let her know how he felt.

And not as part of a ruse to capture Slade.

And that's what he thought about when he attacked Slade, going at him with a furious rage Oliver hadn't known he possessed.

Laying a final blow to Slade, Oliver thought only of Felicity.

* * *

"You really sold it," Felicity said, felling her heart clench in her chest.

"We both did," Oliver replied, a smile gracing his lips, "Felicity…"

She nodded.

"I know," Oliver tried to continue speaking, but Felicity's eyes filled with tears.

"You know?" she said, her lip quivering.

"Yeah," he nodded, "Why didn't you tell me?"

She sighed, "I didn't want…I know you Oliver. You would have tried to pull back. Not fight as much, if you knew it was hurting me. And I don't want that. Starling needs you."

Oliver reached out and grabbed Felicity's hand.

He ran his finger over a scar on the inside of her palm, "What's this one from? It appeared one day, and I chalked it up to me being young and stupid."

Felicity looked down at the mark, "I think that was me trying to slice a bagel. My hand got in the way."

Oliver smiled, "A bagel, huh?"

Felicity shrugged, "We all can't have great storied behind our scars like you."

"I think my story is one that doesn't need to be told," he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and started back to the plane, "But I have a few scars on my body that I don't recognize. I want to know the stories behind them."

* * *

Oliver rubbed a hand over the still red line on his lower abdomen.

He and Felicity had shared the stories behind shared injuries over the years.

Some good, some bad.

There were a few that Felicity still didn't know the story behind.

But this one?

This shared scar?

This one was his favorite.

"Oliver, look," Felicity waved him over.

"Yeah?" Oliver sat on the edge of the hospital bed, an arms automatically going around Felicity's shoulders

"She's already got a little scrape on her arm. Baby Claire Queen has a soul mate out there somewhere," Felicity smiled softly down at her hours old daughter.

Oliver grumbled, "She's just a baby."

"She doesn't have to meet him now. Maybe she'll meet him when he brings her a bullet-riddled laptop and a flimsy cover story," Felicity leaned her head against Oliver's chest.

Oliver smiled, "As long as he treats her right."

"Oh, this princess isn't going to get anything less than a prince," Felicity yawned, and Oliver took the baby from her arms.

"I hope your prince comes in one piece, baby girl. It's hard to put a man back together," Oliver looked over at Felicity, her eyes closed and hair sweaty, "But your mom did it."


End file.
